When AI measures works of art…

The Italian research and development sector for technology, energy and sustainable economic development, ENEA, has announced the ShareArt project, which evaluates and measures the value of works of art. In cooperation with the Bologna Museum of Art, the system is actually running.

The Share Art Project installs a camera near a painting, etc., and interprets how much each work is appreciated with big data, including the distance from the work, the viewer, age and gender, etc. It is also known that the system has been in operation for a while, and as of June, most of the visitors are acting alone and wearing masks properly. Such data could play a role in helping to reopen art galleries that have been forced to close for a long time during the COVID-19 period.

In addition, according to the data collected, the average viewing time of artistic works was only 4 to 5 seconds, and few works were viewed for more than 15 seconds. The ENEA research team sees the system as helping to define certain works of art as attractive and has the potential to lead to changes in layout and exhibition schedules. It is still an experimental project, but as data accumulates, it will be possible to quantify the characteristics of the work, the location of the exhibition, the lighting method, etc. Related information can be found here.